Author's note: Arrrgh! My 'R' button and spacebar don't exactly work right without me having to pound on them. So sorry about all of the little typos where there isn't an 'R' where it should go or where there are words squished together, sorry for the inconvenience.

Please keep reviewing Moonjava; Reviewers are the only thing that's keeping me writing. I'm sorry.

Chapter 20: Fitful Recovery

Rosie ran to her fallen husband. He was beat up so badly.

May walked towards the stairs. She watched in silence as MJ drug Spiderman up and to her room. "What on Earth?" She mumbled to herself before descending to the bottom floor. "Oh Lord!" She exclaimed, seeing Otto all bloodied and unconscious.

"Help me get him inside," Rosie called, her voice cracking with emotion. They had him inside and halfway up the stairs before May sighed, "My god, these things are heavy," she said, eyeing the tentacles.

MJ stared at Peter for a while. She had managed to drag him up to their bedroom and onto the bed. May's voice called from the stairs, "MJ, we need some help!"

She glanced at the masked face of her lover before running out to the main hall; he would be fine for now. Otto was the one they needed to be worried about. She took one look at him before whispering, "Oh, my… He's worse than I thought." There was dried blood on Otto's face and armor and he groaned slightly as MJ took a hold of his arm. They all managed to get him over to the couch where they would have more room to work. After carefully laying him down, Rosie gently brushed some hair out of his face before looking up at MJ and May.

"Get me some towels and warm water, hurry!" she spoke. They ran out of the room hastily, leaving the two alone.

Rosie busied herself at finding how the armor came off. "This would be so much easier if there was a… switch," She said, finally discovering the flap on the gauntlet. She gently pressed it and the armorfolded back to the strap state. "Well, at least I finally figured out how one of your confounded contraptions work."

The metallic, pungent odor of blood filled the room. By now, Otto was barely breathing and Rosie watched as his chest barely rose and fell. May and MJ came back with towels. "Thanks," Rosie said, shooing them off.

MJ ran to her bedroom with a towel. May curiously followed her, eager to see the city's superhero. MJ sat down by his side, oblivious to May's presence and slowly pulled the red, webbed mask up, exposing Peter's bruised, sweaty face. May gasped and shrank against the wall.

Peter gently opened his eyes, "Aunt May." May raised her hand to he mouth, "The whole time… it…it was…you," She stammered. Tears came to her eyes. It had been he who had saved her all of those times. All of the times that everyone had simply dismissed him as a coward or a weakling, he had really been the best of them all.

"Aunt May, please," Peter said trying to sit up; however, his severely aching muscles wouldn't allow it. May fled the room asMJ turned her attention back to him. She began cleaning his cuts and scrapes.

"Wait, MJ… what about Otto, wh-where is he?" Peter asked her.

"He-He's…" She started.

"What?" Peter's eyes were filling with worry.

MJ looked down for a moment and Peter thought that he had passed. MJ looked up again and spoke in just above a whisper, "Otto's alive…but, barely. He's been bleeding very badly and he's now unconscious. Rosie's taking care of him, but we don't know if he will hold out." Her voice was wavering and full of concern. Peter's heart leapt into his throat at the thought that his friend could be dying. Finally managing to get up, he limped out of the room, despite his love's calls to not stress himself and get back to the bed. Clutching his shoulder, he limped out to the living room and toppled into the wall, leaning heavily against it.

Rosie looked up, startled at the noise. A few bloody rags were piled next to her on the floor. No words were spoken as Peter stared at the limp figure on the couch. Otto's face was deathly pale and even the red lights of the actuators were out. "He'll be fine," Rosie said, tending to the wounds once more. "You really need to get back to bed." Peter nodded and with the help of MJ, went back to his room. Rosie looked back at the cuts and sighed; they had stopped bleeding and were already beginning to heal themselves. Otto stirred and groaned painfully. He opened his eyes and looked at his wife. The actuators flared to life and helped him to sit up slowly. "Rosie…"

The pungent smell of blood still hung heavily in the air. She looked down at the blood-soaked rags as hot tears filled her eyes anda lump appeared in her throat.

Otto could sense her feelings and he got to his feet and looked at her sympathetically. "Rosie… I'm fine, really," he panted weakly. She shook her head, staring into his soft brown eyes. "No… no," She said standing to her feet. He walked to her and placed his hands gently on her shoulders. "Please… I'm fine."

"No," she breathed. Otto tied to speak again but she pulled away from him, "-Just… Look at You!"

Otto's eyes widened as he looked down at himself. His shirt, still wet with the blood, clung to his skin. Rosie trembled slightly, her shoulders shuddered as the tears fell down her face. Otto sat back down on the couch and patted it next to him. Rosie looked at him before sitting down and leaning against him. Otto put his arm around her and held her close. The blood smell was stronger now that she was near him, but right now, this was the place that she would rather be than anywhere else.

Taking her hand in his own, he looked at her.

"I'm frightened," she whispered. Otto's grip was firm and gentle, but incredibly weak.

"I am too… but," his voice trailed off as he sighed. She knew what he was going to say. They sat in silence for a while, Rosie with her head against Otto's chest. She listened to the steady rhythm within and his ragged breathing for a while before whispering again. "Please… promise me something."

"What?"

"Don't ever leave me."

These words had struck Otto senseless. He thought for a moment, his brow furrowing. "I won't," he whispered with the last of his strength.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Aunt May meekly said walking in with a small pouch in her hand.

"Oh, No, you're not," Rosie said helping Otto lay back down. She had bloodstains on herclothes from lying against him. May walked over to Otto's side. The open skin was enough to make her flinch and the white gleams of his cheekbone inside only made matters worse.

"You're no going to like what I'm going to do," she said emptying some of the contents of a small bag into her hand and carefully turning Otto's head. One actuator looked at her curiously.

'Oh god, I see she found the Epsom salt bags,' he thought to himself. May glanced at him before sprinkling the salts on his cuts.

Otto seethed through gritted teeth as the tentacles hissed and writhed. That was the only sound he made, because his expression softened, the tentacles stilled and his eyes closed. Otto felt as if he was sinking when his sight turned black and he fell into unconsciousness. May placed a large bandage-patch over his wounds and applied pressure to it.

"Poor man, he's been through so much," May said, checking his pulse. "It's weak, but at least he has one." She looked at Rosie again and gave her a small smile before departing.

Rosie sat down next to Otto again and smoothed some hair out of his face. "Don't leave me," she mouthed silently. She gently took his goggles off from the top of his head and placed them next to his sunglasses on the coffee table. Outside it had started to rain as the sun finally set.

It was going to be a rough night.

Rain was still heavily falling outside even late into the night. Peter lay in bed next to MJ, wide awake thinking over the previous day's events. The statue, the massive battle…Otto. That was the thought that was causing him such trouble in going to sleep. He wearily climbed out of bed after checking the clock. It's red, digital letters flashed 2:30 am. He walked down the hall to the main room only clad in some light-blue boxers. He stopped and stared out of the large, half moon windows at the falling rain. He absently ran his fingers over his bandages on his bare chest and sighed. He had only come out of that fight with a few nasty scrapes and a mess of bruises, while Otto had practically had half of all his blood shed. This troubled Peter greatly.

Outside, a fork of lightning snaked its way across the cloud-covered sky, illuminating everything below. The yellow street lamps below caused the falling raindrops to glow as they passed the lens. Peter groggily shook his head and made his way back to his room. He climbed back into bed next to MJ and kissed her lovingly on the cheek.

There was one more thing that also troubled him. Aunt May hadn't spoken to him all evening. What's worse was, she knew. She knew the reason to why he had been acting so strange over the past few years, why he had looked so tired and was always rushing off at the most random moments. 'What if she never talks to me again?' he thought to himself. Everything bad seemed to be happening at once.

Though Otto was not dying, his slow, painful recovery was fitful. The dreams were returning again.

Otto watched as his first fusion experiment destroyed itself. Lying on the hard stone floor, his skin was on fire. Rosie lay dead a few feet away from him.

Suddenly, everything went black and he felt something cold wet and hard beneath him. Opening his eyes, he saw that he was lying on his stomach in the center of a large, open, stone square. His armor was completely on and his glasses were missing. Freezing rain was falling down on top of him, soaking him to the bone. He automatically walked over to the edge and peered over curiously. He stared down the outside of a tall, dark tower (about 20 stories) and into a thick bank of low-lying fog. 'Not again,' Otto thought to himself. 'Where the hell am I?'

An actuator hissed viciously at something moving behind him. Whipping around, he saw the gruesome face of Venom. His long, red tongue flitted back and forth maliciously.

"You!" Otto screamed running towards him. About two feet away from him, Otto readied himself for a pounce. The floor suddenly crumbled away and he fell into darkness. He landed on something extremely hard and just as wet as the floor above him.

"Must be the second…ah…floor," he groaned. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, two piercing yellow eyes glared out at him from the shadows for a second before disappearing with an evil laugh. "Peter?" he called out. The actuators searched the floor.

Father, look!

What is it?

It's…it's

Peter…

Looking up, Otto saw the limp form of Peter, sans mask, lying face-up on the floor. Otto was next to his side in a second, staring into the fading eyes of the young man. "Peter" he called, gently slapping his face. A small trickle of blood fell from the side of Peter's mouth. With one arm, Otto supported his head. "M-MJ…" Peter breathed.

His dream then seemed to continue from where it always stopped. The darkness above them cleared a bit to reveal incredibly complex mechanisms and a massive, illuminated clock face.

"Damn! I must've fallenfarther than I thought." From his observations, he clarified to himself that he was inside an old bell tower. But… just where in the city was he? Remembering Peter, he looked back at the young man. "O-Otto," he painfully stammered. He pointed up.

Otto looked up; his mind worrying just what was up there. Sure enough Venom was diving right down on top of them.

"NO!" he screamed.

"Otto! Wake up!"

He forced his eyes open to find Rosie kneeling down next to him and Peter leaning against the wall once more staring at him. A cold sweat had accumulated on his brow. He touched his hand to his forehead and wiped the sweat off. His skin was feverish and clammy, he was panting as well. He lay back again and sighed. "Wha-What's wrong?"

"You weresleep talkingagain," Peter spoke quietly. "MJ told me about your dreams. Were you having it again?"

Otto nodded as he continued breathing heavily. Just how much blood had he lost? His head ached as he tried to quell their concerns. "I'm fine you guys. I think if we all go back to sleep, it'll pass."

Rosie stared him, worried. "Are you sure you're fine?"

Otto sat up and took a hold of her hand. "Yes."

She touched the unscathed side of his face before returning to her room. Peter returned to his room as well. Otto lay back once more and sighed heavily.

What was that?

Your dream has never gone that far before?

Is it an omen?

What is it trying to tell you?

"Guys calm down." He touched his chin thoughtfully as he pondered his dream. 'A bell tower? But…Why a Bell tower? And where was it? I could look in the library later." He thought. Otto knew that whenever he had the strength he would do one last experiment on the symbiote.

The idea of using sonics against it was beginning to motivate him to do that one last test, however he as no where near recovered enough to think about it. Hopefully, his recovery was going to go smoother than this night's.

Harry paced back and forth in the large lab where he had created Venom. His arm was bound up and in a sling around his neck as well as he was covered in smaller bandages. He stared at a large tube, within it, Eddie bobbed up and down in some sort of green liquid. He had a breathing mask on and was unconscious.

"Doctor! Do we have an analysis?" Harry called to one man walking by in a long, white lab coat.

"Well, sir… um he's in some sort of a mild comatose right now. He's suffered severe stress damage to his nervous system and… we could be seeing him in intensive care for…ahem, quite a while."

Harry screamed in anger and punched in a nearby window. "How could this have happened? I had it all planned out perfectly! He was supposed to have been killed. Why! Now Eddie's in intensive care and I'm at wit's end!" He bellowed, storming back to his penthouse.

"GRAH! Father what am I supposed to do now!" Harry said throwing himself against the wall. He had failed him again. "I tried… but I failed you… I'm sorry," he whimpered.

"Son," Norman's voice said from the mirror hanging on the door. "I appreciate the fact that you tried, but you still lost. You made a vow to make Spiderman pay for my death, so I will not rest until you do. I think that you should go for a new approach. Defeat them from the inside, threaten the ones they love."

"MJ and May?" Harry mumbled.

"Yes…" His voice trailed off as he disappeared, leaving Harry to hatch his next plan.